Genesis 42:13

Gen 42:13 And they said, Thy servants [are] twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest [is] this day with our father, and one [is] not.

Ver. 13. And one is not.] They tell Joseph that Joseph is not. When God holds men’s eyes, they see not the truth that lies before them; "Who is blind as my servant?" {Isa 42:19}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, is dead.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 13. One is not.] An elliptical sentence, One is not alive.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. We … twelve brethren] In this verse, as in Gen_42:32, it appears that Joseph’s brethren proffer this information of their own accord, in order to convince the ruler that they were simple private persons. According to J (Gen_43:7, Gen_44:19), Joseph extracted the information by direct questioning.

one is not] See Gen_37:30.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother,.... He proposes that one of them might be sent by them to their father's house, and bring, Benjamin down to Egypt:

and ye shall be kept in prison; the rest of them till he came:

that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you; by this it would be seen whether they were men of truth and honesty or not; and should their brother be brought they would appear to be good men and true:

or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely ye are spies; should not their brother they spoke of be produced, it would be a plain case that they were not the honest men they pretended to be, nor did they come merely to buy corn, but had an ill intention.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

i.e. Is dead, as that phrase often signifies both in Scripture, as Gen 37:30; 44:20; Jer 31:15; Mat 2:17,18, and in other authors, as Homer, Euripides, &c. They concluded with great probability that he was dead, Gen 44:20, because for twenty years together they had heard nothing, either of him or from him; which may seem strange, considering the nearness of Egypt and Canaan: but this came to pass partly from his own long imprisonment, and afterwards from his great and high employment; partly, from his lothness to bring so much mischief to his father and brethren, as the discovery of his case might have produced; and principally, from the overruling providence of God, which for its own glorious design disposed of Joseph’s mind and affairs, so that he either did not send to his father’s house, or that the messages were intercepted, there being not then those conveniencies for mutual correspondencies which now there are. And it is not improbable that Joseph might be further acquainted with the mind of God in this matter by dreams, which may seem to have been familiarly afforded to him, together with the interpretation of them. See Gen 40:8; 41:16.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest literally, the little one (cf. Gen_9:24) is this day with our father, and one literally, the one, i.e. the other one, oJ de eterov (LXX)is noti.e. is dead (cf. Gen_5:24 Gen_37:30) in which statement have been seen a sufficient proof that Joseph"s brethren had not yet truly repented of their cruelty towards him (Keil); an evidence that time had assuaged all their bitter feelings, both of exasperation against Joseph and of remorse for their unbrotherly conduct (Murphy); a suppression of the truth (Words. worth), if not a direct falsehood (Lawson), since they wished it to be understood that their younger brother was dead, while of that they had no evidence beyond their own cunningly-invented lie (Gen_37:20) and their own probable surmisings. But in point of fact the inference was natural and reasonable that Joseph was no more, since twenty years had elapsed without any tidings of his welfare, and there was no absolute necessity requiring them to explain to the Egyptian governor all the particulars of their early life. Yet the circumstance that their assertion regarding himself was incorrect may have tended to awaken his suspicions concerning Benjamin.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

'ויאמרו שנים עשר עבדיך וגו AND THEY SAID, THY SERVANTS WERE TWELVE BRETHREN — [AND ONE IS NO MORE], and it is on account of that one who is no more that we dispersed ourselves through the city in order that we might search for him (Genesis Rabbah 91:6).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ויאמרו...בני איש אחד, they now felt the need to assert further that they were in fact honest and forthcoming by revealing that actually there were twelve of them, all sons of the same father, etc.

את אבינו, they had left one brother to attend to the needs of their father during their absence

איננו; the reason why they chose this ambiguous way of referring to the fate of their missing brother was to avoid being trapped. If they had said that their missing bother was dead, Joseph could have accused them of lying –in the event Joseph was alive and this ruler had knowledge of the fact.- They knew that Joseph had been sold to Egypt but had no knowledge beyond this. They had reason to fear that while a slave in Egypt and wanting to obtain his freedom he might have revealed his origins, implicating the brothers in having sold him. The fact that this slave, like they themselves was of Hebrew origin, may well have become known as he had been bought from Hebrews. Even the wife of Potiphar, when thwarted in her advances too him, suddenly refers to him in a derogatory fashion as “the Hebrew man her husband had brought into the house to belittle them, etc.” (39,14) The Chief of the cup-bearers had also referred to him as Hebrew slave. (41,12) However, while Joseph may have revealed or may not have been able to conceal that he was a Hebrew, it was by no means certain that he had also revealed details about his family, his father, etc. Neither would he have had reason to reveal how many brothers he had\, etc. Therefore, when referring to him, they decided to use the non committal ואיננו, meaning that they had no knowledge of where he was if he was still alive.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.